Plant containers for cultivation of flowers, ornamental plants, and vegetables are well known in the art. In general, a plant container has a bottom part, side walls, and has typically a round, or square shape. In many instances plant containers may have additional features that help satisfy particular demands of various gardening applications.
Some plant containers vary considerably with respect to their material. For example, many plant containers are made from polyethylene to be cost-effective and robust at relatively low weight. Other more decorative containers are made from clay or hand-painted ceramics to esthetically enhance indoor or outdoor residential areas. Landscaping frequently utilizes immobile containers with relatively large volume, which are typically made from concrete or cement.
Other plant containers vary considerably with respect to their function. For example, some containers that are especially useful for growing plants with invasive roots have side walls attached to the bottom at a relatively shallow angle. Other containers are collapsible and can be stored away when not in use, as described by Weiman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,496 and Liard in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,202. In further examples, U.S. Pat. No. 2,594,307 to Valenzuela, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,272 to Mosher et al., containers are shown that can be disassembled to facilitate separation of soil and root ball from the container. Yet other containers, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,179 to Johnson et al., show a multi sectioned plant container that can be reduced or enlarged in size by removing or adding ring-shaped elements to a container, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,516 to Cicero, a container is shown, which is tapered inwardly from the bottom to the top to allow enhanced root growth.
Still other plant containers comprise multiple containers arranged in form of a tray for simultaneously growing a plurality of relatively small plants, including seedlings, kitchen herbs, etc. as shown in U.S. Pat. No. D0277467 to Tauno, e.g.
Surprisingly, in spite of a large variety of plant containers especially adapted to various particular functions, almost all known containers invariably have the same basic round or rectangular shape. Therefore, there is still a need to provide improved plant containers.